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Continuity mistake: As they prepare to lower Clean's body into his grave Lance stands to his right and reaches down to lift the flag. According to his wrist watch it's 11:45 but twenty seconds later there's a close-up of Chief Phillips' watch and it's now 4:10. (02:01:10)

Other mistake: Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore says, "You smell that? Do you smell that? I love the smell of Napalm in the morning", right after the jet attack and there's no indication that his character isn't smelling exactly what he says he is. There's no way he could possibly smell Napalm in the ten seconds of uninterrupted movie time that has elapsed from the attack. The explosion is several hundred yards away and looking at the smoke canisters, quite a brisk wind is blowing all the smoke away from them and not in their direction. (00:49:15)

Continuity mistake: In one shot we see the helicopters firing on the huts along the Vin Din Dop beach and the four missiles go directly into the beach nowhere near the huts. In the next shot the middle hut blows up. (00:40:00)

Visible crew/equipment: Before we see Chef with his Bunny, the camera pans along from the rear of the helicopter to the front. First we see the reflected studio lights, then we see a great reflection of a cameraman with his equipment under a hood in the window of the copter. (01:27:50)

Continuity mistake: As Dennis Hopper leads Captain Willard up the steps we see the wall with "Apocalypse Now" written in white. In the previous shot there were a lot of sand bags there, now there is just a big boulder. (02:31:35)

Visible crew/equipment: If you keep your eyes on the right side of the screen before Colonel Kilgore gives the injured VC soldier a drink you can see a crew member's hand holding a light meter pass quickly in and out of the shot. (00:29:20)

Continuity mistake: Captain Willard says, "Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't gonna be the way they called it back in Nha Trang". Note the light pole in the center of the boat, the second blue light from the top is shot out however there hasn't been any battles since the French plantation scene when all four blue lights were intact. (02:21:25)

Audio problem: On the boat while reading Kurtz' file Captain Willard narrates to himself, "dear son, I am afraid that both you and your mother well have been worried at not hearing from me during the past weeks, but my situation here has become a difficult one". At this point they show the actual letter that he's reading from and the text of the letter is not the same as what we are hearing. (01:20:40)

Continuity mistake: In a close-up of a soldier on a helicopter gunship shooting down at the people of Vin Din Dop below we can see the bridge in the background and it's already been blown up. This doesn't actually happen till later in the scene. (00:40:05)

Continuity mistake: In the boat Captain Willard reads more about Colonel Kurtz' and fingers through his three Green Beret applications. Right after the captain says, "But when he threatened to resign, they gave it to him," he stops on a prop sheet that had the real names and dates erased and new names and dates typed in using a different typewriter that has darker numbers and letters. (00:01:25 - 01:01:25)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where they stop the junker boat that they think might be smuggling supplies, as you watch the many scene angles, you can tell that the sun is at different points at different times. Where Willard is sitting at the side of the boat the sun is nearly set, and at one point is below the horizon. At another time, you can tell, the sun is several degrees above that, and in one angle, it is practically noon. Also, the boats change angles, toward the shoreline, possibly to shoot a scene from a better light angle. (01:34:08)

Continuity mistake: When they leave the Do Lung Bridge the flag is visible on the roof of the boat, but several seconds later at the beginning of the next scene, it's gone. (01:48:45)

Continuity mistake: During the arrow attack as Captain Willard grabs Chief Phillips to try and make him stop shooting, the sun can be seen setting over his shoulder. Several other shots in this scene, like the next one, were filmed in the mid afternoon with the sun overhead. (02:22:20)

Continuity mistake: Captain Willard is wearing green, tan and black camouflage trousers on the PBR when they spot Kilgore's air-cav unit. They immediately proceed toward shore and as he jumps off of the boat he's wearing different camouflage trousers, which are brown and green. (00:24:15 - 00:25:15)

Audio problem: After Captain Willard says, "They're just little sticks. They're just trying to scare us", Chief Phillips has some prime words that he shouts at the captain which are edited out. (02:22:05)

Continuity mistake: As Colonel Kilgore gets into his helicopter the trumpet player is standing right there next to it blowing charge. In the next shot as the helicopter takes off he's not there. (00:34:50)

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